Kansas health officials say a foodborne illness linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products may have been a contributing factor in the deaths of three hospital patients.

But Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman Sara Belfry said Saturday that listeriosis didn’t cause the deaths. Belfry said the only detail she could provide about the patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, is that they were adults.

Hospital spokeswoman Maria Loving said she couldn’t discuss why the patients were hospitalized, citing patient confidentiality laws.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says five people developed listeriosis in Kansas after eating products from one production line at the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham, Texas.

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ORIGINALS: Officials at a Kansas hospital say five people who fell ill with listeriosis after consuming a Blue Bell ice cream product became sick while patients in their hospital. Three of the people died.

A spokeswoman for Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita says five patients became ill with listeriosis

during their hospitalizations for unrelated causes between December 2013 and January 2015.

Spokeswoman Maria Loving says hospital officials were unaware that some items produced on one of the 25 production lines at Blue Bell’s Central Texas creamery had been contaminated with listeria bacteria. She said all Blue Bell Creameries products were immediately removed from all Via Christi Health facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma once the potential contamination was discovered.